Ex-CIA Director Says Trump 'Ceded' Ground to Putin

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Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 23, 2017, before the House Intelligence Committee Russia Investigation Task Force.

Former CIA Director John Brennan said in an exclusive interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he felt Trump "ceded" ground to Russian President Vladimir Putin on issues concerning his country's interference in the U.S. presidential election, NBC News reported.

“I don’t think he demonstrates good negotiating skills when it comes to Mr. Putin,” said Brennan, who led the CIA from 2013 until January of this year.

Brennan brought up Trump’s comments about feeling “honored” to meet Putin on sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Germany Friday. “He said it’s an honor to meet the individual who carried out the assault on our election? To me, it’s a dishonorable thing to say,” he added.

In a series of tweets Sunday morning, Trump floated the idea of working with the Russians on cyber-security, writing, “Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded."

Brennan said comments like these certainly indicate the president “doesn’t take the word of the intelligence community … he continually questioned the intelligence community’s high confidence assessment that Russia interfered" with the 2016 election.